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Dfenz

Review: 8012 Super Battle Droid

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Name: 8012 Super Battle Droid

Theme: Technic/Star Wars

Episode 2

Year Released: 2002

Parts: 379

Minifigs: 0

Price: n/a (Bricklink average as at July 2010 €23)

Age: 9+

Having just dismantled the cannon fodder battle droid 8001 it was time to tackle its bigger cousin the super battle droid. Was it super? We shall see.

My first impression of this set was that it seemed a reasonable technic representation of the super battle droid, although admittedly I was using my republican gunship droid minifigs as my reference, not exactly the best reference. I immediately noticed once the set was constructed that it was far more stable than the battle droid as it was not reliant on brittle rubber bands to stay upright. There is only 1 rubber band in this set (for one of the arms) and it has survived in good shape after 4 years of preparing for battle in my bookshelf.

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As far as parts go this set contains some parts (primarily Bionicle) that appear to be in unique colours. There is a 5x5 shield in medium blue (along with many other technic pieces in that interesting colour such as a claw hook and several 3x3 dishes. There are also many metal blue technic pieces. Rest assured that the pieces are not the purple colour that printing of the instructions seems to represent. There are also 2 black bionicle tehunga claw arms and 8 silver hoses. Despite the rareness of some of these parts, i.e. many are unique to this set according to Bricklink, they don't command high prices in the secondary market. Perhaps this is a testament to the distain than bionicle parts are held in some quarters or perhaps its just the colours aren't exactly a good fit in other models.

Bricklink parts list for 8012

Unlike the rubber band powered legs the super battle droid is very stable and well balanced. The legs can be moved as the technic rotation joints work very well. The arm has limited movement but like the battle droid the firing arm can be raised using a gear at the rear. This set was straightforward to put together but like all these technic sets its important to line up pieces correctly as trying to dismantle a mis-constructed section afterwards isn't always the easiest on the fingers (don't even think about using a brick separator on these sets - these technic sets eat brick separators for breakfast).

There are no stickers in this set - it may come as a surprise to some that some of these star wars technic sets have suffered that fate

Some parts of interest to me

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The parts for this set came in three bags. The first bag contained the parts for the torso and head, while the second contained the leg parts. The third and final bag contained the parts for the arms.

The instructions for this set are reasonably clear and the part list for each step is quite clear. The only printing issue that I noted was that some of the steps had parts in purple/ lilac to represent the metal blue parts. Unlike some of the other sets this set doesn't feature a human helping hand perhaps because there are so few moving parts to this set that require explanation. On that note, while the model's 'limbs' can be moved I'd regard this more of a display model which contrasts nicely with the plain neutral colours used in the other models. See my review of 8001 for a family pic!

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Random instructions pic

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Those of you curious to see what alternate model these parts can be used for, will be disappointed. Even the Lego designers gave up on trying to use this selection of oddball parts in unusual colours to make an alternative model. So after completing the last step its straight onto the advertisement for the then current sets. For nostalgia purposes I've added a pic.

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This set is surprisingly cheap on bricklink with an average of only €23 as at July 2010, which is about half the average price for the battle droid. Obviously the colours are less attractive for other models and perhaps this model isn't as iconic as the battle droid. For those looking to complete star wars collections this is surprisingly good value for an 8 year old star wars set, even if it is technic.

Build 7/10 (Easy build for the number of pieces although again my fingers will testify that technic sets aren't always the easiest to dismantle.)

Functionality 6/10 (It is designed to sit on a shelf - it can't do a lot else even if legs and arms can be moved)

Design 7/10 (Not a bad representation for the parts and the set is stable)

Parts 6/10 (Nothing too fantastic here. Some technic parts in rare colours but they might be rare for a reason!)

Price 7/10 (The current Bricklink average price is good value in my view)

Overall, I'd give this model an 'average'. This is with the benefit of knowing what others sets are to come!

Edited by KimT
Indexed and poll added

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Thanks for this review

I considered getting this set when it was first released, but instead went for the somewhat similar Exo-Toa. I agree with your rating for this set, it is pretty easily recognizable and looks to be fairly stable, but it does not have much functionality and overall just is not very spectacular.

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This is a pretty good set, I actually like the overall technic design and it's easily recognizable as an SBD. For a relatively cheaper price compared to the BD, I'd say it's a good bargain if you want to grab your first SW technic set. Thanks for another nice review Dfenz.

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I once bought a bulk of bionicle pieces that turned out to have plenty of pieces from this droid ( unfortunately, not all). The recolors in metallic blue are pretty unique, but my favorite pieces are definitely the trans-red pieces used in the gun, they are acceptably not unique to this set but they are still very nice and useful. The other recolors would be great if I had any idea where to use them (I don't regularly make blue robots, you know).

Thank you for the reviews. Before your next reviews (and hoping you did't yet dissassemble the other droids) could you please make some pics of the sets next to a minifig? Specially for the destroyer droid I am really interested in knowing the scale.

Edited by vexorian

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It may be inaccurate by today's standards, but at the time it was a good set, it's a pity it wasn't brick-built; the metallic blue would have been a useful color. Thanks for these reviews! I've gotten a few looks at the Droideka, so mostly I'm looking forward to the Pit Droid.

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Thanks for another great review!

This set doesn't look half bad, But IMO the legs look a little strange...

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